We all know the importance of creating a positive and supportive classroom environment but working out how can be a daunting challenge. Here, experienced teachers — Dr Maria Gindidis, Schy Prewett and Callum Mackay — share approaches that encourage positive student behaviour and respectful learning.
1. Manage your classroom
One thing most new teachers fear is challenging behaviour in the classroom. For some, it can even feel like the biggest hurdle to overcome in their early career. But there are positive ways to approach tricky challenges.
“Understanding that classroom management is the macro. Behaviour management is the micro,” says Dr Maria Gindidis. And teachers need to understand the difference.
Classroom management is a good starting point to help students be in their best mindset. Because if a learning environment is not set up for students to be on their best behaviour and have the best classroom management, then we aren't going to have an environment that's conducive to learning.
Part of classroom management is establishing routine. Schy Prewett believes that “If students understand that we sit down in this fashion, we have learning intention, success criteria, those are all the things that I see as non-negotiables. Students feel safe because the learning environment is set up in a way they understand and they know how to meet those expectations”.
2. Strengthen emotional intelligence
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand and manage both your own emotions and understand the emotions of people around you. By enabling students to develop their emotional intelligence, this can help them understand their own behaviour, and that of other students.
Schy and her colleagues developed a survey where students explore how they react to situations, and how their classmates might also be emotionally reacting to the same things. They then gave students practical tools to deal with situations that might cause conflict or confusion in the classroom.
By putting students at the centre of managing themselves, they understand themselves better and are able to recognise their emotions and others more easily too. The approach builds on techniques taught in primary schools such as mindfulness and self-regulation. Schy says that “taking those tools to the next level in high school by looking at how interaction is impacted by someone else's emotional state” helps students work in a collaborative environment.
3. Create a safe space and build relationships
For leading teacher Callum Mackay, getting to the core of why a particular behaviour is happening is key to managing it. He says it is always a communication of some sort and the student is trying to tell you something.
“It might be that you don't have enough routine in your classroom or they don't feel the environment is set up in a way they can learn or maybe there's an outside factor contributing to why they're acting a certain way.”
Many students with behavioural issues are often in need of social interaction and safety at school. It’s important that students see the classroom as a refuge, a safe space is critical for learning.
“Focus on making sure the student feels safe and you're building that rapport with them, the other stuff will come,” says Callum. “When they start to feel valued by us, when we know who they are… their likes and dislikes, their interests, we can really get to know them as people.” Once they feel comfortable in an environment, they are more likely to give things a go.
4. Learn about your students’ lives
New teachers may be tempted to approach classroom management with what worked for them at school. But this means making assumptions about students, not recognising their unique selves — and times have changed. Students are so unique and a teacher needs to be there for all of them. Look at evidence, think of new skills, think of new ways to approach a challenge.
From pets to sport and hobbies, teachers should ask questions to get to know things about student’s lives outside the classroom. It’s important that teachers develop a purposeful practice around engaging with students and building rapport.
For example, within the routine of lining up, the teacher might ask incidental questions to a student like “I heard you had a game of footy on the weekend, how did you go?” Taking notes on these insights can also be useful for future conversations.
5. Ask your network for help
If something is just not working, ask other teachers what is working for them with the same students, no matter if their subject is vastly different to yours. One set of classroom management or curriculum is not going to work for every class.
“It might sound a little bit strange for a drama teacher but there's no harm in maybe having a conversation with my colleague who teaches the same class for maths and finding out whether or not they're using a technique that's working really well for them … they might have the gold I'm missing,” says Callum.
6. Last, but not least, be yourself
Be yourself, there is no pro forma or template as to what a teacher should or shouldn't be.
Be mindful about connecting with students, asking questions and getting to know them. And most importantly, be authentic. Students will pick that up, they know when you're authentic and when you're not.
Listen to our podcast “Let’s talk teaching” Episode 1 to hear our full discussion on Building Better Behaviour through effective Classroom Management.
Listen to more episodes: Let's Talk Teaching Podcast
